


a waltz with a vulcan

by fanaticaltrekkie



Category: Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-08
Updated: 2019-07-08
Packaged: 2020-06-24 09:24:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19720852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fanaticaltrekkie/pseuds/fanaticaltrekkie
Summary: A dance has been announced on the starship Enterprise. Hoshi has her eyes on someone that she'd like to dance with, but will she muster up the courage to actually ask her? This fic is a gift to monsterfisken on tumblr as part of the sapphicstartrek fanwork exchange! they asked for Hoshi Sato/T'Pol, dancing. I hope you enjoy!





	1. Chapter 1

“Do you know when it’s scheduled for?”

“Do you not pay attention to announcements? He clearly stated that it started at 8.” Malcolm sounded annoyed.

“Hey! I take offense to that! I was busy!” Trip said indignantly. 

“‘Busy’, huh?”

“Oh leave him alone, Malcolm! We all know Commander Tucker isn’t all there sometimes.” Hoshi made the cuckoo sign with her finger.

“I can see what you’re doing, Hoshi, and I’ll have you know I take offense to that too.”

The whole table burst into laughter. “But seriously though, are we supposed to invite someone to go with us?” Trip asked.

“I suppose so. It’s like any other dance, so you could either go with a friend group or ask someone to go with you.” Hoshi replied.

“What do you plan to do?” 

Hoshi’s eyes slid over to Commander T’Pol, sitting in her usual spot. “We’ll see.”

“Well, I, for one, plan to invite someone to go with me.” Trip announced.

Hoshi leaned forward. “Oh?” 

“Clearly we’re not worthy enough to be graced with Commander Tucker’s presence.” Reed snorted.

Hoshi knelt down and started to beg. “Oh, dearest Commander Tucker, we are inferior to you, but we hope that you will attend the dance with us.” The table erupted into laughter again.

“Well, now that I think about it…” Trip assumed a thoughtful expression. “Still no.”

A bell chimed—the signal that the next shift was about to begin. Malcolm and Trip rose from their chairs quickly and hurried to their stations. Left alone at her table, Hoshi let her eyes drift to T’Pol again.

T’Pol and Hoshi were currently working the morning shift, while Malcolm, Trip, and Travis were working the afternoon shift. She liked the morning shift better than the afternoon shift, but she missed her friends. Commander T’Pol distracted her from her loneliness, though. The stoic Vulcan was wrapped in mysteries that Hoshi wanted to unravel. Hoshi often daydreamed about the Vulcan, especially those eyes...those intriguing eyes. Hoshi snapped back to her senses and saw those amber eyes staring right at her. She averted her gaze immediately and took a sip of her coffee.

Something stirred inside her as she tried to forget her awkward staring. Maybe it was time to confront her emotions. Hoshi walked over to T’Pol’s table. “Hello, Commander.”

“Ensign Sato.”

“I was wondering if you were going to the dance tomorrow night?”

“I had not planned on it.”

“You should come! It’ll be fun, and you can loosen up a little bit!” As soon as Hoshi said the words she knew they hadn’t been received well. 

“Loosen up, Ensign? I am your superior officer. I do not owe it to you to ‘loosen up’ as you say.”

Hoshi was silent. T’Pol sighed. “I apologize, Ensign. My...outburst was uncalled for and the cause of it was not your fault.”

Hoshi sat down across from T’Pol. “If you need to talk about it, I’m here.”

T’Pol was silent for a minute before speaking. “Things on Vulcan are...stressed. Many do not approve of my position on this ship, and wish to have me removed. I wish to stay, as my study of humans has been very interesting.”

“That sounds awful, T’Pol. I, for one, hope you stay on board. And I know that others probably want you to stay on board as well!” T’Pol stared at her cup of tea without responding.

Hoshi softened her voice. “Hey, maybe it would be a good thing for you to go to the dance. You can forget all your worries and study another aspect of humans while you’re at it!”

T’Pol didn’t move.

“Just think about it, okay? I hope to see you there.” Hoshi left the table without looking back. The Vulcan needed space and time to figure things out.


	2. Chapter 2

Hoshi hurried to her quarters after her shift ended. The dance was tonight and she hadn’t picked out what to wear— although to be fair, there wasn’t much she could choose from. 

As soon as she arrived, she opened her small closet and browsed through the meager selection. She had brought two dresses, one semi-formal, one formal. The semi-formal was a short, red dress with a sweetheart neckline. She had worn it once before to a dinner with the senior staff of both the Enterprise and a Vulcan ship. The formal dress was floor length, with off the shoulder sleeves, in a deep shade of purple.

Hoshi took a deep breath as she surveyed her options. Should she go all out with the purple dress, or keep it simple with the red dress? She thought back to the academy days, and the one lesson she learned from her friends there. 

Go big or go home.

* * *

T’Pol noticed how Hoshi had leaped up when her shift had ended. The ensign rushed off the bridge, no doubt eager to start preparing for the dance. T’Pol shook her head as she collected her padds and headed to her own quarters. Dances. The very idea of them wasn’t logical. And yet, the invitation Hoshi had extended to T’Pol nagged at her. 

“ _ I hope to see you there.” _

An emotion flickered over T’Pol’s face that could only be described as happiness. Someone wanted her on the ship, and that someone was going to be at the dance tonight. T’Pol’s steps quickened as a small smile toyed at the corners of her mouth.


	3. Chapter 3

Hoshi entered the cargo bay. The middle of the bay had been cleared out, with boxes on the sides of the room serving as tables and chairs. Very efficient of them, she thought. She scanned the occupants next, searching for a certain face. When she didn’t see it, she moved towards Liz, needing a friend to latch on to.

“Liz!” Hoshi called to her friend. “You look absolutely splendid!” And she did. Liz had worn her formal dress too. It was a form-fitting dress with lace sleeves and a boat neckline. It suited her perfectly. 

“If I look splendid, then you’re a bombshell!” Liz returned. “I’m glad to see that someone else wore their finery. I was afraid that I’d appear as if I was looking for attention.”

“Oh, so you aren’t?”

The chortle that answered confirmed what Hoshi said. 

The cargo bay doors swooshed open, admitting some more crew members. With them, Commander Tucker and Lieutenant Reed, arm in arm, wearing tuxedos. Hoshi looked over at them and smiled. “I wondered when Trip was going to ask him. He was hinting pretty hard in the mess hall yesterday.”

Liz looked at them too. “They make a pretty cute couple. Odd, but cute.”

“That’s the dream, isn’t it?”

“I don’t know about you, but my dream is to be over there at the refreshment table, stuffing my mouth with those little cakes.”

Hoshi grinned. “Go fulfill your dreams, Liz. I won’t stop you from achieving them.”

Liz muscled her way to the refreshment table, giving warning looks to those who obstructed her way. Hoshi laughed softly, but continued scanning the room. No sign of T’Pol yet. She claimed a table, sitting down on a less-than-comfortable storage box. 

“May I have a dance with you?”

A voice to her left made her flinch.

“Oh my goodness, I didn’t see you there!” she laughed at her own unawareness. “Yes, that’d be lovely.”

The crewman who had asked her was of the science division. Dana Franklin was his name. She had befriended him during the graveyard shift, when she had been so tired that she knocked over a stack of padds, and he had helped her pick them up. He was a kind man, but nothing more than a friend to her. Hopefully he knew that. 

  
  


A jazzy song was playing as he led her to the dance floor. Soon she was dancing to the upbeat tempo, swaying with the swing, and following him as he led her around the dance floor. Hoshi was laughing all the while. This was fun-- dancing was fun. But she still kept her eye on the door, hoping that it would swoosh open to reveal a Vulcan standing there.

Song after song passed, and still there was no sign of T’Pol. Hoshi slowly started to give up hope, not wanting to believe that the Vulcan had given her the cold shoulder.

_ What if you scared her off? _

Doubts started to form in her mind. It took everything in her to keep smiling and dancing like she hadn’t a care in the world. Every song started to blur together, until Liz wrenched her away from her current partner to do the Macarena with her. Hoshi’s smiles were genuine by the time the song finished, and she joined a gaggle of her friends on the sidelines to catch her breath. The doors opened once more, and she glanced at them, more out of habit than anything. Her breath caught. 

T’Pol had come at last.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> couldn't help adding in a little tuckerreed sorry ;)


	4. Chapter 4

T’Pol had debated going to the dance for many hours. And when she finally decided on going, she still needed to find something to wear. Her choice of outfit was the most un-Vulcan-like outfit she owned: a simple black dress that Hoshi had made her buy “just in case she needed it.” 

Now she was standing outside the cargo bay doors, trying to muster enough courage to go inside. She had nothing to lose but her dignity and the affection of an ensign. She opened the doors and stepped through.


	5. Chapter 5

Hoshi drifted towards T’Pol, as if she were in a trance. Hell, she felt like she was in a trance. She hurriedly tried to collect her wits as the gap between T’Pol and her grew smaller.

“Hello, Commander! I’m glad you made it.” 

“Because I’m not on duty, Hoshi, you can call me T’Pol.”

Hoshi smiled. In the background, she could hear the songplayer address the audience. 

“...and for the second to last song of the night, I’m going to slow things down a bit with a waltz! Grab your partner and hold ‘em tight, folks.”

“Now that you’re here, you can ‘let loose’ for a little bit.” Hoshi jerked her head towards the dance floor. “Would you like to dance with me?”

“I’d like that very much,” T’Pol said thoughtfully.

They walked onto the dance floor, and started to waltz together. Hoshi’s hand rested on T’Pol’s shoulder, and T’Pol’s hand gripped Hoshi’s waist lightly. Their free hands clasped together in front of them, leading the way for their dance.

Hoshi relished in their proximity, gazed at the beautiful Vulcan. “Have I told you that you look beautiful in that dress?” Hoshi murmured in T’Pol’s ear. A risky move, to be sure, but a risk she was willing to make.

A slight tinge formed on T’Pol’s cheeks. “Thank you. You look wonderful as well.”

An echo to the conversation Hoshi had had with Liz, only with much more underlying tension.

Hoshi blushed. “I wore this dress because you’d be here,” she admitted, her cheeks flushing to a deeper red.

“How...thoughtful of you.” was T’Pol’s response.

They waltzed in silence for the rest of the song, gazing into each other’s eyes. As the song wound to an end, Hoshi led T’Pol to the side of the cargo bay. 

The songplayer announced that the next song would be the last song, and started to play a fast-paced dance song.

“I take it you don’t like to dance to faster songs?” 

“You are correct in your assumption, Hoshi.”

A pregnant silence fell between them. 

Hoshi broke the silence. “Thank you for coming to the dance. It means a lot to me.”

T’Pol chose her words carefully. “No, Hoshi, thank you for inviting me to the dance, making me feel wanted on-board the ship.”

Hoshi smiled. “I hope you stay on board for a long time. And I hope that we can be friends for all that time.”  _ And maybe something more,  _ she added silently.

T’Pol didn’t want to meet Hoshi’s eyes, but she forced herself to do so. “And maybe...maybe something more, eventually?”

Hoshi’s breath caught. “Yes. Maybe something more.”

T’Pol extended her hand to Hoshi. Hoshi took it, and together they exited the cargo bay. Only when Hoshi said goodnight to T’Pol at her quarters did she remember that Vulcans displayed affection with their hands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)

**Author's Note:**

> holy fuck I loved this prompt! I feel like I wrote T'Pol just a little too emotional, but let's say it was bad week for her ;) anyways I'm feeling inspired to draw Hoshi and T'Pol's dresses, and if I do, they'll be on my tumblr, @sassysaltysarcasticstupid


End file.
